Menus are what allow hungry customers to see what they are in for. The menus today
have come a long way compared to its early predecessors with a variety of different types of
menus in sizes, shapes, the materials they use, and now menus are becoming digital due to the
2020 Covid pandemic resulting a lot of restaurants changing and some not changing back to the
physical menus after the pandemic. Menus today serve the same purpose as the menus dating
all the way back to the first menu being recorded dating back to 879 BCE. The story of the first
menu, which was essentially just a giant stone slab, was to celebrate Assyrian King,
Ashurnasirpal II his newly built palace. He invited thousands of his closest friends from
neighboring regions to come and visit where the celebration would last ten days and to
commemorate the celebration he would engrave some of the foods and delicacies on the stone
slab: sheep, oxen, honey, fruits and cheeses.
Menus today are a lot more complex, informing the hungry guest(s) about the restaurant
itself, what each individual dish is composed of, and even having multiple menus for certain
times of the day; breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and whatever else the restaurant serves. Special
menus offered even more anticipation and even a sense of exclusivity. Special menus are mainly
used for prestigious events, crowning of royalty, a celebration or maybe even just for special
occasions or private dinners. These menus cater towards said group of people, which could affect
the dynamic of the experience.
But menus are more than just pieces of ephemera used to showcase the foods at
restaurants. Throughout time, menus display what certain people were eating, what culture
changes were happening and some menus and ephemera were handcrafted to be souvenirs and
pieces of art displaying actual hand drawings. Menus were once considered an entertainment
factor, playing a role where eating in public around strangers was considered a new experience,
but menus offered diners a sense of anticipation and a choice on what to choose from. Like most
ephemera, people have no interest in menus, no value, but menus can tell a story that people
would want to hear, the thought process behind the menus from special events and restaurants
rather than being forgotten.